1. Field of the Invention
This invention related to a system for scanning a light beam and more particularly it concerns a system for scanning laser light through an optical waveguide.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices for scanning a light beam have heretofore included a rotational polygon mirror for deflecting the beam. With such prior art devices, however, it has been impossible to obtain high scanning speed and a large deflection angle. In addition, overall system size has been very large.
There are also known devices which use a bulk type acousto-optical deflector instead of a rotational polygon mirror. Although it is possible to obtain high scanning speed with such devices, a large RF power source is required along with an auxiliary optical system to get a sheet beam.
There are still other devices which utilize the optical integrated circuit technique to modulate a light beam. For example, there has recently been published a technique of forming an acousto-optical deflector or an electro-optical modulator in a thin film waveguide path formed on a base to thereby form a light integrated circuit, as explained in T. Tamir, Integrated Optics, published by Springer Verlag, Inc. (1975). Further, a deflector utilizing the acousto-optic effect in a thin film waveguide path to diffract a parallel light beam by random access is disclosed in E. G. Lean, et al., Thin Film Acousto-Optic Devices, Proc. IEEE 64, 779 (1976). Also, an example of a transducer for generating an acoustic wave in a waveguide path over a wideband is disclosed in C. S. Tsai, Guided-Wave Acousto-Optics Fundamentals and Wideband Applications, SPIE 139, 132, Guided Wave Optical Systems and Devices (1978). However, none of these publications disclose a compact device for scanning a light beam with a small RF power source to form a large number of discrete points.